Darryl Adams, RIP

[jeffcrom]

 

I just learned that New Orleans alto saxophonist Darryl Adams died on December 19, 2018, aged 61. Adams was mostly a brass band guy - he was a member of Leroy Jones' Hurricane Brass Band, a group that was instrumental (pun just noticed) in the New Orleans brass band revival of the late 1970s. When Jones left the band, Adams took over its leadership and renamed it the Tornado Brass Band. He can be heard on the Hurricane's 1975 LP on the LoAn label (if you are one of the lucky brass band fans to have a copy of this rarity), as well on recordings by Tuba Fats' Chosen Few Brass Band & Jazzmen and the New Birth Brass Band. In later years he played for a short time with the main Preservation Hall touring band, although he only recorded with them backing up the Blind Boys of Alabama on one of their albums. He made two CDs under his own name: "Runnin' Wild" in Toronto, Volumes 1 & 2 for Jazz Crusade. His playing is exciting and infectious on them, but unfortunately he is backed by a needlessly archaic mostly-Canadian trad revival band.

I loved Adams' exuberant playing. I'm not sure how sophisticated his knowledge of harmony was - he often skated over the chord changes when they got slightly complex. But he was always driving and melodic at the same time. Over the years I heard him with the New Birth BB at the Maple Leaf, at Preservation Hall, and with the PHJB in an Atlanta suburb. And I recorded 30 minutes of him playing with a pickup band in Jackson Square in 2010; I'm listening to that recording now.

I'll miss Darryl Adams. His music was just so New Orleans - eclectic, lively, unpretentious, and honest. RIP.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theneworleansadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=darryl-anthony-adams&pid=191084606&fhid=32214

https://www.wwoz.org/media/89089-darryl-adams-my-new-orleans